Chapter 7 (1/2)
TL:SmolProcrastinator
PR:Banchou-sama
Episode 7
As soon as Se-young opened the door, he felt faint. Momentarily forgetting that it was the middle of the night, he let out a panicked shout “Ack!”
The entire rooftop was drenched in a sea of fire.
“Gee, really?”
Se-young felt a pang of fear as the fiery scene on his roof overlapped with the images from his dream. Where did the fire come from, and how could the flames roll around like waves on a cement floor with nothing to burn? It was a chain of mysteries.
Yesterday, a sword fell out of the sky. Today, a fire broke out on the cement floor.
I’m not even sure if it came from the sky or popped out of the ground.
With the fire raging outside, Se-young, who was stuck in the house and couldn’t move, crawled on the ground to the corner of the railing and turned on the faucet.
*Squeak*
*Shhhhh*
As he doused the sword with buckets of water from the faucet, the surrounding fire that had burned as high as his waist quickly fizzled out. It was a rather dull ending to the mysterious flame.
“Haa! Haa! Haa!”
Se-young sat down in front of the door, gasping for breath. He had repeated the process of drawing water from the faucet over ten times to put out the entire rooftop.
“…Hurts.”
Se-young felt as if he was going to die from the severe pain in his aching arms and stiff back. It was his first time he’d moved that much in two years. It had been a while since he last felt the sensation of sweat flowing down his cheeks. Se-young threw off his coat with a sulky whine.
After the heat from the fire had dissipated, all the steam from the roof rose up, filling the area with a humid fog, as if one had just entered a sauna.
Suddenly, Se-young, who had inadvertently looked towards the bottom of the window, came to a realization.
“…Oh”
There laid a dusty but neatly rolled up water hose.
——
*Dun Dun Dun Dun!*
“……!”
[12 o’clock at night]
Se-young, who had been sleeping, opened his eyes and began to rise out of bed.
Th-That’s the sound!
The chilling feeling sent goosebumps all over his skin.
Just as expected.
Like the previous night, a reddish light was seeping through the gaps around his door.
Se-young stood up and went outside. As expected, the rooftop was once again transformed into a sea of fire. The upside-down sword in the middle of it all was burning a bright, red-hot color. Se-young hurriedly ran to the faucet to douse the fire. After going back and forth five times with his arms screaming out in pain, he dropped the bucket.
“Wait…!”
Se-young was hit by an overwhelming urge to curse at himself.
I forgot about the fucking water hose.
——
*Dun Dun Dun Dun!*
The thundering sound of a thousand war cries,
The deafening blast from a war-horn announcing the advancement of an army.
Se-young jumped out of bed reflexively. He woke up with a start but got up without rushing like the previous day. This time, he connected the water hose to the faucet and calmly doused the fire. Somehow, he was getting used to this.
Se-young pondered the scenario while turning off the light.
When I woke up, I could clearly hear the sound, but where does the drumming come from? And why the fire?
Se-young automatically shifted his gaze towards the sword stuck in the middle of the roof.
There’s no concrete evidence, and I can’t even begin to explain what is going on, but the main suspect is definitely you!
——
*Dun Dun Dun Dun!*
Thousands of thundering war cries,
The blast of a horn announcing an advancing army.
“Dammit… ”
Humans are an adaptable species. As he woke on the fourth day, Se-young rubbed his eyes in irritation at the strange echo of the drums.
*Yawn~*
Se-young, who had one hand in his pocket and the other around the hose, sprayed water at the flames while his eyes teared up from yawning. After a few days of restless sleep, fatigue was now an ever-present annoyance.
——